• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권10호
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• pp.5825-5831
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• 2013

Background/Objectives: Maintenance of cellular function in culture is vital for transfer and development following adoptive immunotherapy. Dual properties of IL-21 in activating T cells and reducing activation induced cell death led us to explore the mechanism of action of IL-21 enhanced proliferation and cytotoxic potential of CIK cells. Method: CIK cells cultured from PBMCs of healthy subjects were stimulated with IL-21 and cellular viability and cytotoxicity to K562 cells were measured. To elucidate the mechanism of action of IL-21, mRNA expression of cytotoxic factors was assessed by RT-PCR and protein expression of significantly important cytotoxic factors and cytokine secretion were determined through flow cytometry and ELISA. Western blotting was performed to check the involvement of the JAK/STAT pathway following stimulation. Results: We found that IL-21 did not enhance in vitro proliferation of CIK cells, but did increase the number of cells expressing the CD3+/CD56+ phenotype. Cytotoxic potential was increased with corresponding increase in perforin ($0.9831{\pm}0.1265$ to $0.7592{\pm}0.1457$), granzyme B ($0.4084{\pm}0.1589$ to $0.7319{\pm}0.1639$) and FasL ($0.4015{\pm}0.2842$ to $0.7381{\pm}0.2568$). Interferon gamma and TNF-alpha were noted to increase ($25.8{\pm}6.1ng/L$ to $56.0{\pm}2.3ng/L$; and $5.64{\pm}0.61{\mu}g/L$ to $15.14{\pm}0.93{\mu}g/L$, respectively) while no significant differences were observed in the expression of granzyme A, TNF-alpha and NKG2D, and NKG2D. We further affirmed that IL-21 signals through the STAT-3 and STAT-5b signaling pathway in the CIK cell pool. Conclusion: IL-21 enhances cytotoxic potential of CIK cells through increasing expression of perforin, granzyme B, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha. The effect is brought about by the activation of STAT-3 and STAT-5b proteins.

• 한국수자원학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국수자원학회 2005년도 학술발표회(2)
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• pp.908-909
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• 2005

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.2091-2095
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• 2013

Background: The $7^{th}$ TNM staging is the first authoritative standard for evaluation of effectiveness of treatment of gastric cancer worldwide. However, revision of pN classification within TNM needs to be discussed. In particular, the N3 sub-stage is becoming more conspicuous. Methods: Clinical data of 302 pN3M0 stage gastric cancer patients who received radical gastrectomy in Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital from January 2001 to May 2006 were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Location of tumor, depth of invasion, extranodal metastasis, gastric resection, combined organs resection, lymph node metastasis, rate of lymph node metastasis, negative lymph nodes count were important prognostic factors of pN3M0 stage gastric cancers. TNM stage was also associated with prognosis. Patients at T2N3M0 stage had a better prognosis than other sub-classification. T3N3M0 and T4aN3aM0 patients had equal prognosis which followed the T2N3M0. T4aN3bM0 and T4bN3aM0 had lower survival rate than the formers. T4bN3bM0 had worst prognosis. In multivariate analysis, TNM stage group and rate of lymph node metastasis were independent prognostic factors. Conclusions: The sub-stage of N3 may be useful for more accurate prediction of prognosis; it should therefore be applied in the TNM stage system.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.1463-1469
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• 2015

Background: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of combined chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy alone in elderly patients with esophageal carcinoma to identify the best method of treatment. Materials and Methods: One hundred and sixteen patients with esophageal carcinoma aged 70 and older who received definitive radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy entered the study. Overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) and treatment-related toxicities were assessed. Results: The median OS of the overall population was 17.9 months. For patients treated with cCRT, sCRT and radiotherapy alone, the median OS was 22.3 months, 18.0 months and 12.4 months respectively(P=0.044). Median OS for patients treated with radiotherapy dose ${\geq}60Gy$ and <60Gy was 20.2 months and 10.9 months respectively (p=0.017). By univariate analysis, Chemoradiotherapy (include cCRT and sCRT) and radiotherapy dose ${\geq}60Gy$ were found to achieve higher survival rates compared with radiotherapy alone and radiotherapy dose <60Gy (P=0.015, P=0.017). By multivariate analysis, chemoradiotherapy (HR=1.645, P=0.022) and radiotherapy dose ${\geq}60Gy$ (HR=1.642, P=0.025) were identified as independent prognostic factors of OS. Conclusions: Definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy could be considered as a feasible and effective treatment in esophageal carcinoma patients aged 70 and older. Radiotherapy dose 60Gy is an effective treatment option compared with standard dose radiotherapy, while higher doses are not beneficial to improve survival.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.334-345
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• 2017

In order to meet the increasing needs of the hybrid energy source system for electric vehicles, which demand bidirectional power flow capability with a wide-voltage-conversion range, a bidirectional three-level DC-DC converter and some control strategies for hybrid energy source electric vehicles are proposed. The proposed topology is synthesized from Buck and Boost three-level DC-DC topologies with a high voltage-gain and non-extreme duty cycles, and the bidirectional operation principle is analyzed. In addition, the inductor current ripple can be effectively reduced within the permitted duty cycle range by the coordinated control between the current fluctuation reduction and the non-extreme duty cycles. Furthermore, benefitting from duty cycle disturbance control, series-connected capacitor voltages can also be well balanced, even with the discrepant rise and fall time of power switches and the somewhat unequal capacitances of series-connected capacitors. Finally, experiment results of the bidirectional operations are given to verify the validity and feasibility of the proposed converter and control strategies. It is shown to be suitable for hybrid energy source electric vehicles.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.64-71
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• 2017

Considering the volatility, intermittent and random of photovoltaic (PV) generation systems, accurate forecasting of PV power output is important for the grid scheduling and energy management. In order to improve the accuracy of short-term power forecasting of PV systems, this paper proposes a prediction model based on environmental factors and support vector machine optimized by genetic algorithm (GA-SVM). In order to improve the prediction accuracy of this model, weather conditions are divided into three types, and the gray correlation coefficient algorithm is used to find out a similar day of the predicted day. To avoid parameters optimization into local optima, this paper uses genetic algorithm to optimize SVM parameters. Example verification shows that the prediction accuracy in three types of weather will remain at between 10% -15% and the short-term PV power forecasting model proposed is effective and promising.

• 화약ㆍ발파
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• 제34권1호
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• pp.1-10
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• 2016

2015년 8월 12일 중국 텐진항에서는 두 번의 대규모 폭발이 발생하였다. 두 번의 폭발은 TNT 3톤, TNT 21톤 규모로 추정되었다. 현재까지 폭발의 정확한 원인은 공표되지 않고 있으며 원인에 대한 몇 가지 추정이 제시되고 있다. 그중 하나는 화재진압을 위해 뿌려진 물과 탄산칼슘의 화학반응에 의해 폭발성 아세틸렌 가스가 발생하고 이 가스의 폭발이 800톤의 질산암모늄의 폭발을 야기했을 것이라는 것이다. 본 연구에서는 이러한 폭발 시나리오에 대한 폭발에너지 분석을 통해 화학적 반응에 의해 텐진항 폭발 사고와 같은 대규모 폭발이 발생 가능한지를 평가하였다.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.325-343
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• 2016

A total stress-based bounding surface model is developed to predict the undrained behaviour of saturated soft clays under cyclic loads based on the anisotropic hardening modulus field and bounding-surface theories. A new hardening rule is developed based on a new interpolation function of the hardening modulus that has simple mathematic expression and fewer model parameters. The evolution of hardening modulus field is described in the deviatoric stress space. It is assumed that the stress reverse points are the mapping centre points and the mapping centre moves with the variation of loading and unloading paths to describe the cyclic stress-strain hysteresis curve. In addition, by introducing a model parameter that reflects the accumulation rate and level of shear strain to the interpolation function, the cyclic shakedown and failure behaviour of soil elements with different combinations of initial and cyclic stresses can be captured. The methods to determine the model parameters using cyclic triaxial compression tests are also studied. Finally, the cyclic triaxial extension and torsional shear tests are performed. By comparing the predictions with the test results, the model can be used to describe undrained cyclic stress-strain responses of elements with different stress states for the tested clays.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제19권4호
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• pp.843-860
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• 2015

Recycled tire rubber-filled concrete (RRFC) is employed into the steel-concrete composite structures due to its good ductility and crack resistance. Push-out tests were conducted to investigate the static behavior of steel and rubber-filled concrete composite beam with different rubber mixed concrete and studs. The results of the experimental investigations show that large studs lead a higher ultimate strength but worse ductility in normal concrete. Rubber particles in RRFC were shown to have little effect on shear strength when the compressive strength was equal to that of normal concrete, but can have a better ductility for studs in rubber-filled concrete. This improvement is more obvious for the composite beam with large stud to make good use of the high strength. Besides that the uplift of concrete slabs can be increased and the quantity and width of cracks can be reduced by RRFC efficiently. Based on the test result, a modified empirical equation of ultimate slip was proposed to take not only the compressive strength, but also the ductility of the concrete into consideration.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.353-368
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• 2016

This paper extends our recent work on the fatigue behavior of stud shear connectors in steel and recycled tyre rubber-filled concrete (RRFC) composite beams. A series of 16 fatigue push-out tests were conducted using a hydraulic servo testing machine. Three different recycled tyre rubber contents of concrete, 0%, 5% and 10%, were adopted as main variable parameters. Stress amplitudes and the diameters of studs were also taken into consideration in the tests. The results show that the fatigue lives of studs in 5% and 10% RRFC were 1.6 and 2.0 times greater of those in normal concrete, respectively. At the same time, the ultimate residual slips' values of stud increased in RRFC to highlight its better ductility. The average ultimate residual slip value of the studs was found to be equal to a quarter of studs' diameter. It had also been proved that stress amplitude was inversely proportional to the fatigue life of studs. Moreover, the fatigue lives of studs with large diameter were slightly shorter than those of smaller ones and using larger ones had the risk of tearing off the base metal. Finally, the comparison between test results and three national codes was discussed.